Welcome to our class blog!

The purpose of this blog is to teach others about social psychology by writing about topics that are personally relevant and interesting.

Each post will explore a social psychology principle and connect it to an analysis of a film or book, a first-hand account of a social experiment, or the discussion of something from popular culture, a current or historical event, etc.

Blog posts will be released approximately weekly, by topic:

13-Feb: Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination
27-Feb: Attitudes
06-Mar: Conformity
20-Mar: Group Processes
27-Mar: Attraction and Close Relationships
05-Apr: Helping Others
12-Apr: Aggression

Bloggers - Full instructions are available on our Canvas page.

Readers - Please comment on the posts and respond to the bloggers' questions and prompts.

Bloggers will be following comments and responding for a week after the posting date.

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A Look Beneath the Children of God Cult

A cult, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious" ("Cult", 2019). While some may find cults unnerving, it is important to understand how these groups operate, and more specifically, how these "religious" leaders are able to foster extreme conformity in their groups—whether or not these cult leaders are actually religious will not be debated here. However, an absolutely fascinating cult, the Children of God, which reveals the deep power of the pressure to conform in an isolated group, will be the topic of our discussion. A documentary on the Children of God can be found on Netflix, under the same name. As a result of the documentary containing graphic content only intended for mature audiences, I will provide a short synopsis rather than any clips from the documentary itself. Before getting into the synopsis, some background information is necessary. (Photo: xFamily.org) ...

A Population's Perspective - How Locals View and Experience Relationships

Relationships and attraction are two pretty complex topics. In trying to think of ways to explore these areas a little further, I decided to conduct a little social psychology research and get some information from a local population to answer two main questions: how do people in our local environment view relationships, and what makes them view them the way that they do? I was curious about whether our local environment here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, specifically Houghton, even more specifically the MTU community, is unique in how relationships are viewed and experienced, or if we fit the mold discussed in our textbook and other literature. To get my answers, I created a simple 14-question survey and sent it out to a variety of family, friends, coworkers, and classmates, all in the local area. I received a total of 23 responses, none of which are in our social psychology class. After looking at the data I collected, I was able to make some links and connections to possible r...

Everyday Good Samaritans: The Bystander Effect and Disaster Preparation

As an emergency responder I have personally had experience with the phenomena known as the Bystander Effect. The textbook defines this as “the effect whereby the presence of others inhibits helping,” (Kassin et al, p.426). Integrated from the earliest part of our training was the idea that when we needed help with something, we needed to pick out specific people and direct them to do the necessary task rather than leaving it up to the group to combat this issue. I believe the textbook does an excellent job outlining the steps of the Bystander Effect. It describes five of them: Noticing, Interpreting, Taking Responsibility , Deciding, and Providing (Kassin et al , p.426) Of these steps I believe that Taking Responsibility is where many people get lost when reacting to emergencies. For events such as the Boston Marathon Bombing or our own Father’s Day Flood, it’s impossible not to notice that something is going on an...

Social Psychology 2019

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